At this astonishing moment, let us pause to reflect: Just 40 years ago, the kind of marriage that brought Barack Obama into the world -- one between a black man and a white woman -- was illegal in 16 states.

A member of a prominent Chicago family faces a felony gun charge after being arrested Tuesday when he approached security barriers outside Barack Obama's home. The U.S. Secret Service insisted he never posed a threat to the Democratic presidential candidate.

The history of the Mosaic Templars was believed to have drawn to a close in the 1930s, when the Great Depression swallowed one of the largest benevolent societies for blacks in the nation and likely the world.